


The Lord's Favorite One

by mirandamyth



Series: Expectations [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Literal, Post-Episode: s11e18 Hell's Angel, Sympathy for the Devil, not the episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:38:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6666214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirandamyth/pseuds/mirandamyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As God's favorite, His first son, you may be the one thing in all of creation that He still cares about, the one thing that could finally make Him show Himself, so that I can confront Him and He can acknowledge the wrongs He's done me. And then He can witness the utter destruction of all His creation before He Himself is swept away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lord's Favorite One

It takes longer than she thought, to force her brother's hand. She holds his favorite son in torment for several human days, worming her way deeper, working her way to the deepest levels of the grace contained in his body, and still he doesn't show. She'd been so sure that Lucifer was the key to this. So sure that with just one little scream her brother would come running to save him.

Even ensconced within his own private bunker in his head, Cas can feel the agony Amara is sending through his brother and their shared vessel. Room after room is flooded with blinding yellow light, Lucifer's screams bounce and echo off concrete walls. Cas runs, hides, but eventually his space is full, the last door rattling in its hinges, fighting to hold that searing, screaming light at bay. The wood starts to fail, light bursting through the cracks, scorching that which it touches. The knob falls and rolls across the floor, one side red hot and warped. He feels the light hit him then, and he screams.

She discovers the labyrinth inside of her captive and is perplexed. She can feel Lucifer's grace in her grasp, but there is still more depth, more power in his body. And so deeper she searches, and imagine her surprise to find that her nephew shared his vessel not with a human soul, but with an angel. She hunts him down, he hides, but she is patient, he can only run so far. Just as she sinks her claws into the second angel, she hears him. "Sister, enough." Amara turns, triumphant, a venomous smile gracing her face for an instant before all is light and ice and pain.

As quickly as the light reaches him, it recedes. The pain had brought him clarity and he follows it out, through the blackened halls of his home (prison). He finds his brother in the library, skin blackened and blistering, staring dumbstruck at the only unblemished thing in the place. A large television sits in the middle of the bunker, and Castiel can see Amara's back, and beyond her a light that is a pure, clean white, and he watches as she crumbles before it, blown away as sand in the wind. When all that's left is the dress and ashes, the light fades back to a point, simply illuminating a man in the doorway.

Recognition crosses Cas's face. "The Prophet?" he asks as a single, reverent "Father." slips from his brother's lips.

"'Prophet' is merely another name for 'vessel,' Castiel." Chuck approaches them, talking in a calm tone, as though he hadn't just revealed to them the single biggest mystery of Castiel's existence. And then he is there, inside, with them. With a touch, he heals the burns Cas can feel on his very grace, and Lucifer is no longer burned but retains none of his previous attitude. The slump in his shoulders is one of defeat, of a child knowing he is to be punished.

 A thousand questions burn on the tip of Castiel's tongue, only to die before he can voice them. Chuck continues to study the two of them, fondness written on his features. "My sons, of all my creation, it is the two of you that bring me the most sorrow and the most joy. The first to defy orders and the last. How fitting it is that the two of you were to share a body." He sighs, "Two sides to the same coin — so very alike, and yet so fundamentally different."

It is Lucifer who breaks the silence, "Father, I—" He is stopped by Chuck's hand on his shoulder.

"I already know all that you are trying to say. And I must apologize to you, for in my youth I was wrathful, and my wrath begat your own. I made you the way you are, and when you turned that against me, I cast you out so that I would no longer have to look upon my own flaws. The eons have turned you cruel, my son. Nothing was left of Michael but a bundle of nervous energy,  _I_ had seemed long gone, and you thought there was no one left who could defeat you. Sam Winchester certainly wouldn't be able to trick his way to victory _again_. But hubris has always been your downfall, and you fooled yourself in thinking you could defeat my sister.

"And then, what? Destroy the world yourself? Take over Heaven? Declare yourself the new 'God'?" There is a pointed look in here for Castiel now, "And you, Castiel, I saw in you the propensity for angels to be as I originally intended. To stand for humanity against all the darkness in the world. I have brought you back — not just the once, but three times. And you have continued to surprise me. Because I didn't see this one coming. I should have. Dean Winchester has been one hell of an influence on you. You've lived as a human, and emerged better for it. You did as no angel before you has been able to — you learned how to love unselfishly. Angels were never well versed in love. Adoration, yes, obedience, obviously, but love? That wasn't something I thought would be important. You proved me wrong there, Castiel. You spent a few months with the Winchesters and it all clicked into place. Love, family, belonging. The things that keep those boys fighting.

"So I brought you back, let you stay with them, and you go off and play god, poke fun at purgatory. Let's not even mention getting involved with Metatron. There was a reason I did all the talking there.

"Things have gone way off book, guys. And I know I'm mostly to blame. Everything just got so... Boring. This war, this plague, that martyr. It seemed much more exciting to walk among man, not to observe events from afar when I knew the ending. So I sort of hit auto pilot and lost track of time.

"Back to the matter at hand, however, I can't keep letting this continue, giving free passes. I'm going to separate you, and then this is it, Castiel, no more rescues, no more recharges." Castiel nods in understanding and he feels Lucifer being removed from his vessel. He watches as a body forms from a handful of dust, a blond and roguish version of Lucifer's first vessel. He watches as Chuck pulls the grace from his brother, weaving it between his fingers before tucking it into a small pouch on his belt. "I can't have you wielding the grace of an archangel anymore, Lucifer, I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place and let you live among man, as their equal. Perhaps I will teach you some humility."

He leaves soon after, taking Lucifer with him. Castiel finds his cell phone, and places the only call he can think to make.

It rings seven and a half times before Dean picks up, "'Lo?"

"Hello, Dean." Cas smiles fondly, Dean sounds as though he has been sleeping, and Cas wonders idly if it's late in Kansas.

"Cas?" There's faint rustling over the line and Cas can picture Dean sitting up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "That really you?"

"Yes, Lucifer is gone. I don't think he'll be a problem for us anymore."

"What do you — Cas what happened? Where are you? One minute, Lucifer was blasting Amara, the next, all three of you were just gone."

"God destroyed her."

"Like, _God_ , God? Did you see him? Lemme guess, long white beard and a toga?"

Cas sighs, "I would very much like to come home, Dean. I promise I will tell you everything. You and Sam."

There is a pause on the other end, and Cas is afraid for a moment that Dean will say no, that he'll tell Cäs he's fucked up too much this time, that he's not welcome back into the only place he's considered home since he rebelled. "Yeah, Cas, of course you should come home. Where are you? Should I come get you?"

"That's not necessary, Dean. I will find my way back."

"I guess I'll see you soon, then, Cas."

"You will."

"Hey, Cas?"

"Yes, Dean?"

"I'm ― I'm really glad you're back."

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to get this out before the new episode, please let me know what you think.


End file.
